THE HOPRY SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DRINK OR IT WON'T GET DONE!

I’m not 100% sure of what prompted me to pick up this bottle of beer by R.J. Rockers out of South Carolina. Perhaps it was the blue waxed top, perhaps it was because I’d never heard of the brewery, or perhaps it was because it is considered a black IPA. I’d say the latter was the most compelling reason for buying this Black Perle. So when I had my friend Martin over one night to watch the latest Wilco documentary Ashes of American Flags, I thought let’s knock this one back since he loves hoppy beers. Well, needless to say I think our reaction was very similar in that we didn’t really pull out a lot of the hops that were promised on the bottle. Rather, we felt this one tasted more like a combination of a Porter and Abbey-style Quad — which is disappointing in some ways. In my eyes, the dark hoppy beers are becoming the new fad; much like barrel-aging beers became the fad in recent memory. I, for one, am a big fan of them and am excited to see what breweries have to offer in this style. So I was hoping this beer would compare to the Southern Tier Iniquity or Laughing Dog Dogzilla. After we were able to move past the fact that there were not a ton of hops here I think we both realized that what we had was just a good beer that we both could slowly drink while kicking back to a great documentary and snow storm. Stay tuned as I will have another review with Martin next week…

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This beer can be found in these states.
On the iPod: My Morning Jacket

Brewery: R.J. Rockers
Beer: Black Perle
Style: Imperial IPA
Location: Spartanburg, South Carolina
ABV: 9.5%
Rating: 87/100